Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/177

Rh Delivered Dares, sore distressed,

And thus with soothing words addressed:

'Alas! what frenzy of the mind

Has made you, hapless friend, so blind?

Perceive you not the powers have changed,

And left the side where once they ranged?

Give way to Heaven.' Such speech he made,

And as he spoke, the combat stayed.

But Dares by a friendly throng

All helplessly is dragged along;

Trailing his knees his weight beneath,

Swaying his head from side to side,

While clotted gore and loosened teeth

Pour from his mouth in mingled tide.

They bear him to the ships away:

Then at a call receive

The helm and sword: the bull and bay

They with Entellus leave.

With triumph kindling in his eyes

And glorying in the bull, his prize,

The victor to the concourse cries:

'Learn, goddess-born, and Ilium's host,

What strength my youthful arm could boast,

And what the death, from whose dark door

Your rescued Dares you restore.'

He spoke, and stood before the bull,

Swung back his arm, and planted full

Between its horns the gauntlet's blow.

The brain came through the shattered skull:

Prone, quivering, dead, the beast lies low

While words like these the veteran said

In consecration of the dead:

'This better substitute I pay,

Eryx, to thee, for Dares' life,

And here renounce, as conqueror may,

The gauntlets and the strife.'